John Cassavetes has been called a genius, a visionary, and the father of independent film. But such rhetoric threatens to obscure the humanism and generosity of his art. The five films included here represent his self-financed works made outside the studio system of Hollywood, on which he was afforded complete control. Populated by beatniks, hippies, businessmen, actors, housewives, strippers, club owners, gangsters, and children, the films are beautiful, emotional testaments to compassion. Cassavetes has often been called an actor’s director, but this body of work—even greater than the sum of its extraordinarily significant parts—reveals him to be an audience’s director. The Criterion Collection is proud to present Shadows, Faces, A Woman Under the Influence, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, and Opening Night in stunning new transfers, as well as Charles Kiselyak’s 2000 documentary A Constant Forge—The Life and Art of John Cassavetes.

COLLECTOR'S SET INCLUDES:

SHADOWSJohn Cassavetes

United States • 1959 • 81 minutes • Black and White • 1.33:1 • EnglishJohn Cassavetes’ directorial debut revolves around an interracial romance between Lelia (Lelia Goldoni), a light-skinned black woman living in New York City with her two brothers, and Tony (Anthony Ray), a white man. The relationship crumbles when Tony meets Lelia’s brother Hugh (Hugh Hurd), a talented dark-skinned jazz singer struggling to find work, and discovers the truth about Lelia’s racial heritage. Shot on location in Manhattan with a cast and crew made up primarily of amateurs, Cassavetes’ Shadows is a visionary work that is widely considered the forerunner of the American independent film movement.

FACESJohn Cassavetes

United States • 1968 • 130 minutes • Black and White • 1.66:1 • EnglishThe disintegration of a marriage is dissected in John Cassavetes’ searing Faces. Shot in high-contrast 16 mm black and white, the film follows the futile attempts of captain of industry Richard (John Marley) and his wife, Maria (Lynn Carlin), to escape the anguish of their empty marriage in the arms of others. Featuring astonishingly powerful, nervy performances from Marley, Carlin, and Cassavetes regulars Gena Rowlands and Seymour Cassel, Faces confronts suburban alienation and the battle of the sexes with a brutal honesty and compassion rarely matched in cinema.

A WOMAN UNDER THE INFLUENCEJohn Cassavetes

United States • 1974 • 155 minutes • Color • 1.85:1 • EnglishJohn Cassavetes’ devastating drama details the emotional breakdown of a suburban housewife and her family’s struggle to save her from herself. Starring Peter Falk and Gena Rowlands (in two of the most harrowing screen performances of the 1970s) as a married couple deeply in love yet unable to express that love in terms the other can understand, the film is an uncompromising portrait of domestic turmoil. The Criterion Collection is proud to present one of the benchmark films of American independent cinema—a heroic document from a true maverick director.

THE KILLING OF A CHINESE BOOKIEJohn Cassavetes

United States • 1976 • 135 minutes • Color • 1.85:1 • EnglishJohn Cassavetes engages film noir in his own inimitable style with The Killing of a Chinese Bookie. Ben Gazzara brilliantly portrays gentlemen’s club owner Cosmo Vitelli, a man dedicated to pretenses of composure and self-possession. When he runs afoul of a group of gangsters, Cosmo is forced to commit a horrible crime in a last-ditch effort to save his beloved club and his way of life. Suspenseful, mesmerizing, and idiosyncratic, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie is a thought-provoking examination of desperation and masculine identity..

OPENING NIGHTJohn Cassavetes

United States • 1976 • 144 minutes • Color • 1.66:1 • EnglishBroadway actress Myrtle Gordon (Gena Rowlands) rehearses for her latest play, about a woman unable to admit that she is aging. When she witnesses the accidental death of an adoring young fan, she begins to confront the personal and professional turmoil she faces in her own life. Featuring a moving performance by Rowlands (and with some scenes shot on stages with live audiences reacting freely to the writing and performing), John Cassavetes’ Opening Night exposes the drama of an actress who at great personal cost makes a part her own.

A CONSTANT FORGECharles Kiselyak

United States • 2000 • 200 minutes • Color • 1.33:1 • EnglishCharles Kiselyak’s A Constant Forge—The Life and Art of John Cassavetes is a detailed journey through the career of one of film’s greatest pioneers and iconoclasts. Assembled from candid interviews with Cassavetes’ collaborators and friends, rare photographs, archival footage, and the director’s own words, the film paints a revealing portrait of a man whose fierce love, courage, and dedication changed the face of cinema forever.

DISC FEATURESSPECIAL-EDITION EIGHT-DISC BOX SET:

New high-definition digital transfers of all films, with restored image and sound, and, where applicable, enhanced for widescreen televisions

Biographical sketches of the actors Cassavetes frequently cast in his films, written by Tom Chartity (John Cassavetes: Lifeworks)

English subtitles for the deaf and hearing impaired

Optimal image quality: RSDL dual-layer edition

Plus: a 68-page book featuring new essays on Cassavetes and the films by writers/critics Gary Giddins, Stuart Klawans, Kent Jones, Philip Lopate, Dennis Lim, and director Charles Kiselyak, as well as reprinted writings by and interviews with Cassavetes, and tributes to Cassavetes by director Martin Scorsese, Cassavetes’ secretary Elaine Kagan, and novelist Jonathan Lethem

That is a great deal, but it depends on the condition of the box/digipaks. Don't know why, but that price makes me jump to negative conclusions. I hope you do in fact make out like a bandit, good luck with that.

That is a great deal, but it depends on the condition of the box/digipaks. Don't know why, but that price makes me jump to negative conclusions. I hope you do in fact make out like a bandit, good luck with that.

Well, according to the description, it's brand new; still in the wrapping, and the seller does have 100% positive feedback right now. There is a part of me that is a little suspicious, but I'm hoping for the best. It'll be the second score I've made on a Criterion title (the other being the Spinal Tap Criterion someone sold in our store a couple months back).

Looked through the new blu-ray set. I'm a little disappointed they didn't carry over the mysterious "Jimmy crack corn" on the inside, and I'm also really sad they didn't carry over the double slip-case design from the DVD version. I'm sure it was an extra expense they wanted to avoid, but man that inner sleeve really makes the DVD box feel extra solid and it looks really swanky. These are minor gripes, though. I'm just happy to have this most magnificent set on blu-ray at long last. I'm definitely holding onto the DVD box for a while (I still have non-HD friendly friends who need to have these films in their lives!), but I can't wait to see these blus in motion.

Luckily I'm not a spine completist. I also remember not liking A Constant Forge that much (too much slavish drooling and not enough good content) Luckily it's the only let-down in a veritable sea of amazing supplements.